Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-02-03
SUGGESTIONS FOR MOTHERS.
Deformities Which May be Avoided-Position
of the Child During sleep
Phiiadelphia Times


portance If q mother would have her
child grow up symmetrical in form, saws
Emma G. Hewitt, is to watch her babv
with unceasing vigileace during his sleep.
One able physician declares that to care
lessness upon this point is due most of
the shortness of life not produced by ac-
tual disease. ''NOte your child well" said
he to young mother, "wher he is asleep
if you would have him grow up straight
lou will find that from your own habit
of most conveniently holding him on
one particular side that he will soon
grow to prefer to lie upon that side
II have one patient who is able to nurse
her child only from the right breast, the
left one having gathered and so lost the
milk, and the left sid of that babys face
IS perceptably smaller than the right,
because from force OF haLit he has
grown to prefer to lie upon his left side,
and she has ignornntiy permitted him to
do so.
"You will find, too, that during his
sleep he will draw up habitually one leg
lying on one side, the other leg if lying
upon the other. Turn him often and
straighten his legs. This will not only
conduce greatly to his comfort but much
to your own, for frequently, when a baby
stirs and seems inclined to wake, it is
. because the soft little limbs have grown
tired from lying in one position. Turn
him over, not too gently, for by this
very caution you will be most likely to
waken him, draw down his leg, shake and
smooth his skirts, give him pat, and ne
IS Off for another hours nap"
Indeed, have known babies treated in
this way to sleep along for i've Or six
hrr cot nf-n 4nI ~xt
would have been up perhaps in a half
hour, with only half nap. This process
can be repeated with safety just so long
as the baby will stay asleep. Very often
babies waken not because they wish to
rouse at all, but because they want to
turn over and do not know how to &C
complish it.
It stands to reason that a child habi-
tually lying upon one side should habi-
tually draw up one leg, thus producing
while the bones are soft and forming,
a lesser or greater difference in length.
and next, children should be put into
short clothes just as soon as practicable
and should not at any time be compelled
to wear excessively long ones. The wearing
of such garments is very detrimental
to the growth and Development
of the lower limbs. These should be
we'll protected, but to put upon little
baby two or three skirts four or five times
as long as the little fellow himself, and
keep them in place by pinning them SO
tight around him that he cannot breathe,
is not protection, it is cruelty.
The garments should be so short as to
insure at least a moderate degree of free
dom of action.
It will do the baby good to go naked
a little while each day, TO kick and fence
at his own sweet will. Let the room be
W arm, hot if you choose, but let the baby
kick. Not only will his lower limbs be
developed by this freedom of action, but
his lungs will be benefited, his chest ex-
banded, and his muscles be sire ngthened
in sill parts of his body.
Let us now PASS on to the time when
slight defects, either created through ig-
norance or Unborn, have taken hold of the
system.
A mother notices that her four-year-
old daughter Is acquiring habit of hold
ing her head slightly upon one side.
Still it looks "cute" and the child is per-
mitted to do it, without any idea upon
her mothers part that there may be a
cause for the habit. 1t grows upon her,
however, and becomes confirmed. By the
time she is seventeen one shoulder is
higher than the other, and she no longer
'looks CUTE" she only looks hopelessly
awkward, and the mother tries by soold-
ing and threats of various processes to
break up the "ugly habit" Lo, by some
accidents it is suddenly discovered that
In all these years, while this 'cute," "ugly
habit" has been forming, the daughter
has bee using but one eye, the vision of
the other being defective to such a de-
gree as to be practically useless. Had
she had spectacles or iudicious treatment
for her eyes when the ''habit" first set in
she would have been as straight as any
of her neighbors.
Mary Ann complains of pain in her
back. Her mother says: Nonsense.
Girls ought not to have any backs" But
Mary AIMS "back" remains fixed fact
nevertheless, in spite of maternal protest.
Aunt Jane suggests a porous plaster which
is forthwith clapped on though her N other
don't approve of coddling young girls"
No relief. Grandmother suggests iodine,
Uncle John a blister, and, to make assur-
ance doubly sure, now that she has set
about the business of curing Mary Ann,
she puts on both, much to Mary AIMS
discomfort, but nothing at all to her re-
lief.
duQ alulOSb COHNluC6U
that Mary AIMS back was no fiction, the
advice of a physician is asked. He
then measures and questions and says
finally:
Madame. your daughters legs are not
the same length. Raise the heel of one
shoe and the difficulty will be obviated
Every time she takes step she
wrenches her spine and jars her whole
body. This in time may produce per-
manent injury"
The advice taken, the mother is mean
while blissfully ignorant of the fact that
probably to her own ignorance alone is
Mary Ann's defective leg due, and the
daughter is restored TO comfort, and the
family who always noticed that she set one
heel down kind of neavy. but thought it
was only bad habit, is convinced that
Mary AIMS back is no sham.
1t is the lot of the main body of human
lty to endure such physical suffering, but
1T is the solemn duty of parents to see
that their children are saved from I'M